Technology and the Changing Face of Humanity

Cover Page

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Title Page

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pp. iii-

Copyright Page

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pp. iv-

Dedication

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pp. v-

Contents

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pp. vii-viii

Acknowledgements

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pp. ix-

Introduction

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pp. 1-21

The title “Technology and the Changing Face of Humanity” reveals this book’s particular perspective on technology. That is, technology is seen as a kind of “living force,” an element of human life that demands our reflection and, ultimately, our moral choices. In other words, this book rejects what could be called the neutral view of technology, which holds technology simply to be ...

Chapter I: Technology and the Body: A New or an Old Anthropology?

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pp. 22-40

Much has been written over the past 300 years or so about the “mind–body problem,” and the contemporary philosophical debate about what constitutes the human mind or consciousness (no modern philosopher speaks of the soul in this context) continues unabated in the literature of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. This paper is not about the mind-body problem, but two points are worth noting about this longstanding debate that are relevant to my theme. First, ...

Chapitre II: Foucault, la technologie et l’homme

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pp. 41-57

Dans cette étude nous nous proposons de montrer l’actualité de l’œuvre de Michel Foucault (1926-1984) en abordant les rapports entre la technologie, le pouvoir et l’être humain. Celui-ci est déterminé, délimité, circonscrit dans sa double dimension individuelle et sociale. Nous commençons par présenter l’approche terminologique de la « technologie » en vue de clarifier ses différents usages foucaldiens. Ensuite, nous recourons à l’avènement de l’homme comme « nouveau paradigme » ...

Chapter III: The Changing Faces of War and Humanity

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pp. 58-82

Heraclitus once wrote that “war is the father of all,” which might be read as another example of how cultures tend to personify war. Although Christianity does not have a specific patron saint of war, Jesus of Nazareth is often represented as warlike and the archangel Michael is said to stand forever on guard, ready for battle. The Greeks had Ares as their god of war, and the Romans...

Chapter IV: Natural Disasters and Human Responsibilities

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pp. 83-93

In the 21st century the rapid development of technology creates the impression that we can master nature and engineer at will environments that are fully suited to the satisfaction of the needs and desires of our species. This supposition is contradicted, however, by the continuous stream of “natural disasters” that are entering our collective consciousness via our television and computer screens. Even states with sophisticated, ...

Chapter V: Intellectual Property, the IT Industry, and Market Freedoms in the Global Arena

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pp. 94-111

In March 2004 the European Commission found that Microsoft had used its market dominance to compete unfairly and fined the world’s leading software company 497 million euros. Microsoft appealed and the case was brought before the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, to be heard by a panel of five judges headed by Hubert Legal. In June 2005 the media reported that Legal was in hot water after publishing an article in the French journal Concurrences asserting ...

Chapter VI: Moral Mediators in a Technological World

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pp. 112-133

Kant’s categorical imperative states: “Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”¹ When dealing with “the formula of the end in itself,"² Kant observes that: man, and in general every rational being, exists as an end in himself and not merely as a means for arbitrary use by this or that will: he must in all his actions, whether they are directed to himself or to other rational beings, always be viewed...

Chapitre VII: L’historicité de la technologie comme historicité eschatologique

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pp. 134-151

La question de la technologie sera abordée ici sous l’angle d’une interrogation sur son mode spécifique d’historicité. Cette interrogation ne doit cependant pas être entendue de manière purement « régionale » au sens d’un questionnement visant uniquement l’élucidation d’un sous-secteur déterminé du phénomène technologique global. La perspective ultime dans ...

Chapter VIII: Persona Gratia: Integral Personalism, Democracy, and Maritain’s Subjugation of Technique in Education

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pp. 152-175

According to Jacques Maritain, how one approaches truth or fails to approach truth is the quintessential factor at play in the formation of pedagogy. It is clear that, from Maritain’s Thomistic standpoint, conceptual clarity and precision are essential for the formation and transmission of intelligible truth. In this vein, Maritain is compelled to speak of “toleration” when confronting diverse spiritual families within the body politic.¹ However, ...

Chapter IX: Technology and the Remaking of Human Existence

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pp. 176-191

The term “technology” is understood in different ways by different scholars. George Grant calls technology “a fate.”¹ According to J.M. Wise, “Technology is a socially active hybrid that connects with others and bends space while being at the same time coded with abstract forces.”² I find Grant’s view very restrictive, and Wise’s a bit vague and abstract. Karl Jaspers offers an alternative understanding of technology...

Chapter X: Technology, Religion, and Human Destiny

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pp. 192-205

Religions seek to explain, and to reflect attitudes or beliefs concerning, the nature and character of human existence. There is, of course, much more to religion than this, but religion clearly bears on the here and now, and not just on the hereafter. Technology, too, reflects our attitudes and beliefs about human existence. It has affected, and affects, not only how we look at the different stages of human life, but, arguably, how we understand human life itself. It is therefore plausible...

Chapter XI: Philosophy of Gene-Being: A Prolegomenon

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pp. 206-225

Recent developments in physics, evolutionary biology, genetics, and biotechnology raise substantive questions concerning humanity’s relation to the world, self, and God. Aristotle’s question, “what is being?,” has been a basic one throughout the western philosophical and theological tradition. Today the question must be rethought in the light of recent scientific breakthroughs, such as the discovery of stem cells in 1998; the mapping and sequencing of the human genome in 2001...

List of Contributors

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pp. 226-

Index

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pp. 227-